Almost to race # 1

Swim - 14,200 yards - 4hrs 10mins
Bike - 253.8 miles -  12hrs 55mins 44sec
Run - 48.9 miles - 5hrs 55mins

Total - 23.01 hrs

So the first thing that strikes you when you look at this page on this blog is likely "wow, that guy is good looking;" of course referencing my sweet glamour shots that my brother put in my blog header.  True, true, but I try and stay humble.  It's tough sometimes, being around so many people that aren't really, really ridiculously good looking.  What can I say.

The very next thing that you notice that I suffered a 30% reduction in swim volume this week!!  Wow, you ARE perceptive.  Tough to get past the pics, but you managed.  I commend thee.  Ashley and I were planning on swimming in Lake Norman on Saturday after the bike ride, which we managed to do but with a much shorter than 4000+ yard swim that I normally would get in on a Saturday afternoon.  I'm hoping to get in several wetsuit swims before NOLA as I know that familiarity with the feelings that come with a wetsuit will help me out in the swim on race day.  Other than that, I had some good swims in there; with the most notable being on Wednesday.  I nailed a 30x100 set (last 5 on 1:20 in 1:10, :11, :10, :10, :09) so was pretty pleased with that.

I rode my bike a good bit this week; the most I have this year in fact.  My workout on Tuesday was the same as last week but it wasn't executed quite as well.  Part of the problem (for both weeks, in fact) was that I chose a poor location to do that type of workout.  The booty loop is very easy to get to and easy to get motivated to go around (at least for a while) because it's close, it's [relatively] safe, and - now that it's spring - lots of booty to check out!  But I think as my workouts increase in duration (and importance), it's important to choose function over form and go somewhere I can have the best workout, not just the place I have the best eye candy.

As evidenced by my overall time spent running these last 10 weeks, my time spent in running shoes has been quite consistent.  Every week my time generally goes up, but not by enough to make a big difference, especially as I run faster or slower some days/weeks.  I had a great long run on Wednesday with 2x10min tempo sections but my fartlek style interval run on Friday did not feel quite as good, mainly because it was early (for me) and a bit chilly as well.  Now that it has started to warm up just a bit the chilly days just feel that much chillier.

Next week brings with it the first race of the season in Cool Breeze Triathlons (250yd, 20k, 5k) that will essentially be a short workout since my week will be structured normally leading into the race (4 hour Saturday!), but as that's what is expected added to the fact that Cool Breeze does not matter (that much) in the grand scheme of things I'm ready.  The only issue has been getting my hands on MY P3.  The ship date has now been delayed 3 times and Cervelo says now that it will ship on the 30th. We shall see...  For this week, Andrew Fletcher has been kind enough to let me use his 56cm P3 so hopefully my borrowed bike will be able to have a fast split on Sunday!